3Commas vs Cryptohopper (2026)

Two of the biggest connect-your-exchange trading bot platforms. Both run DCA, grid, and signal bots on your own exchange accounts via API keys. The differences are in pricing structure, futures access, and strategy tooling. Here's the side by side. US-based? See our pick for US traders, which factors in which exchanges you can actually use.

Pricing & features verified 2026-07-06 from each provider's official pages · plans and prices change, so check the live pricing pages before subscribing.

Pricing

Features & bot types

Who should pick 3Commas

• You want futures bots (available on Pro at $50/mo and up).
• You want the lowest entry price to start ($20/mo Starter).
• You run many bots at scale. The Expert tier allows up to 1,000 of each bot type.
• You drive bots from TradingView alerts via signal bots (our TradingView plans guide covers which tier gives enough alerts).

Who should pick Cryptohopper

• You want to build strategies visually without code (its strategy designer).
• You want access to a marketplace of rentable strategies and signals.
• You want AI-assisted strategy tooling and don't mind that it's gated to the Hero tier.
• You want a lower top-tier price. Hero ($107.50/mo) undercuts 3Commas Expert ($140/mo).

Our take

If we were starting a single bot today with our own money, we'd open Cryptohopper first. Not because it's cheaper (at entry it isn't), but because the visual strategy designer lets you see a strategy's logic laid out before it ever places an order. That shortens the expensive part of the learning curve, the weeks you'd otherwsie spend discovering that a rule you wrote quietly does something you didn't intend.

3Commas is where we'd move once you know exactly what you want to run. Its real edge is scale and futures: if you're running many DCA or grid bots at once, or you want futures without switching platforms, the Pro tier earns its price. For a first bot, most of that power sits unused, which is why we'd start on the other side and grow into 3Commas.

The caveat we won't skip: in 2022, a batch of 3Commas users' exchange API keys was compromised and used for unauthorized trades. 3Commas hardened its systems afterward, and connect-your-exchange bots never hold your coins (they use API keys, not custody). But it's a real part of the history, so weigh it. Whichever you pick, set your exchange API keys to trade-only with withdrawals disabled, which caps the downside of any bot platform being breached. We'd do that on either one regardless.

Where our own data will decide it: the number we trust more than any feature list is execution delay, signal fired to order landed. We don't have that measured for these two platforms yet; it's on the bench. Until we do, treat the picks above as reasoning from the documented features plus general bot experience, not from a latency test we've run on 3Commas and Cryptohopper themselves. When those numbers exist, this section changes to match them, that's the whole point of the site.

How we'll benchmark this next

Pricing and features are the easy part. Anyone can copy a pricing page. The number that actually matters for a bot is execution delay: how long from a signal firing to the order landing on your exchange. That's a measurement, not a marketing claim, and it's on our bench (see methodology). This page will get an "execution delay" section with real, dated numbers once that test is running, the same treatment as our exchange API latency benchmark.

Bottom line

Both are mature, connect-your-own-exchange platforms that never take custody of your funds. 3Commas wins on futures and low entry price; Cryptohopper wins on visual strategy building, its marketplace, and a cheaper top tier. If you're futures-focused or price-sensitive at entry, start with 3Commas; if you want to design and rent strategies without code, start with Cryptohopper. Both offer trials, so use them before committing to an annual plan.